Function of A Reflection
by Alex Ultra
Summary: Where does a reflection end, and become real?  Does it really matter?  Eventually, Mari me, her friends, and the Nerima crew, will find out.


Disclaimer: WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE - The sound of me riding a roller coaster that I own because of all the money I made off Ranma ½. Alas, it exists only in my imagination, much like the money and the funny pink oranges that sometimes dance around my bed in an attempt to wake my lazy ass up.

A/N: Take note that I take no stock in actual-reality on the situation in Nerima. What is said here is fiction, I.E. made up. If that was how it really was, then that would be cool, but I wouldn't expect it nor really care all that much. (Well, maybe just a little…)

PS: SI Alert!

* * *

What's Your Name?

* * *

I set a wooden block atop some other blocks, placing it in a crook made by two other blocks. I then set another block beside it. And then another, and another, and another. After that was done, I set about making the next layer of blocks, continuing to do this until I had a completed figure.

Standing back a bit, I smiled at the pyramid I'd made of blocks. It was almost as tall as I was, but that wasn't really saying much as I wasn't even two feet tall yet.

I then proceeded to pick it up, all as one, with the bottom layer clamped between my arms. So far I'd failed more than fifty times, and succeeded twice. This was my third time to succeed, and it was staying in place fairly well, so I decided it might be safe to try walking around with it, too.

And then I tripped over one of the middle blocks that had fallen out and scattered the whole thing all over the floor, not to mention falling on most of them and their hard edges.

I almost giggled as I grabbed my knee, for some reason either failure or success seemed funny, which helped to keep me trying either way, "Owie…" It appeared, though, that it was going to be quite a while before I had the control needed to accomplish such a task successfully. Besides that, I still had plenty of baby-fat to work off…

* * *

The first layer was easy, being only one block. The second layer was harder, being four, but I managed to hold them in place and put a block at their center to hold them. The third layer was even harder, so I did that one block at a time, using yet another block to keep each block in place while I placed the others. By the time I was finished, after four hours of hard work, I had a completed double-pyramid, diamond shape of wooden blocks. Accomplishing such a task required planning, a steady hand, accuracy, attention to detail, a very accurate sense of balance not only in oneself but also in their surroundings, and about a billion bucket-loads of patience. But in the end it was worth it. If nothing else, it was pretty.

I then proceeded to pick up the whole thing by the bottom block and carry it around the house without losing a single block, as doing so would mean that the entire thing would come apart yet-again. I'd been doing this ever since I'd turned two; this was my one-hundredth attempt and my fifty-third success.

The next block exercise I had in mind was going to be _really_ hard…

* * *

At first I started by making a single layer of blocks, with little spaces missing and a little bit of space between each block. I would then stand a ways away and lob the extra blocks into place. As I got better, I closed in the extra space between the blocks and increased the number of blocks to fit. It took nearly half a year before I was getting them all in place on the first try, and by that time I had moved up to having several layers with more than a hundred blocks missing and getting them all back in place within a few minutes.

I was then experimenting with chip-shots, using one thrown block to hit the corner of another, which would then bounce up and land in a different spot. This was considerably harder, but fairly easy once I'd gotten the hang of it.

Throughout all this time I was practicing and improving a skill I called 'Speed-Arranging', placing the blocks in their formation using every last ounce of speed I could get out of my little arms without making a mistake. By the time I was four I could arrange a 342-block setup (almost) flawlessly inside three minutes. That was when daddy decided to allow me to take on a sensei in martial arts.

* * *

My sensei and I had something of a special connection, for which I was glad. When my father had first gone out to find an appropriate school for me, every Master he'd found accused him of exaggerating my accomplishments rather badly and had insisted that they see me for themselves.

Day after day for nearly two months Master after Master of just about every Martial Arts style imaginable would come to our house and watch as I went through my solo practices just like I'd been doing all my life. There were a few that seemed especially interested in what I did, like the Master of Martial Arts Flower Arranging and the Master of Martial Arts Construction, both of whom seemed intently amazed at the speed and accuracy with which I could manipulate the small and, by now varied objects. They watched with fascination as I arranged intricate shapes and forms, making large and powerful structures that would literally fall in on themselves on the lightest of touch. They wanted that kind of talents in their school, which led to bickering.

But before I let daddy set me up with them I wanted to have the chance to approve them first. It was, in part I suppose, probably because of my age that he allowed me to do so, and by the time I'd interviewed the fortieth Master I was beginning to despair about finding the right one. With each rejection, the Masters were also beginning to despair that I would ever choose a Master, and would sob lightly over the loss of such a promising student. But to me, all those Masters were the same, none had the qualities I wanted in a Master.

And then daddy managed to find someone. Or rather, he found us.

He wasn't actually a Master of anything, and his style didn't have a name, which was probably why he wasn't a Master of it, but even beside that he was well-known for being a powerful man of great skill, despite that very few people actually knew his name.

When I saw him, his eyes were only half open and in them I saw a window covered from the inside. His body was well built, and his stance ready for just about anything, and yet I also saw in him a slight disregard for his own body. This was a man who used his actual body for little more than interacting with other people and getting from place to place.

My first impression of him, that he was drastically different from the other Masters around the city, gave me honest hope. Others call him cold, saying that he's too distant, but what I saw was someone who saw the world as it was, not as it seemed to be. Someone I felt I could learn from.

My first question to him, as it had been to so many others, was this: "Where do you see me in ten years?"

He looked at me, with those guarded eyes and the distinct feeling that he was looking directly at my soul, going past all the guards and walls I had without even realizing they were there. In that moment, something about his gaze sent a shiver up my spine and caution signals went off in my head.

And then he smiled. "I see you doing just what you've been doing: Improving every day. Seeing the limits the world put on you, the things that people tell you are impossible, the rules for how far you can go and what you can do, and breaking them. I see… I see someone who… makes her own rules. I see a girl that no one else can really see or measure. In you I see… me."

I looked him in the eye, my heart pounding and a smile on my face. "Me too." I then got up and ran out of the room to get my father. This was the man I'd chosen to learn from. Master or not, he was to be my teacher.

I haven't regretted that decision even once. Not when he'd first started teaching me and I had ended up with a broken bone two separate times. Not when he sent me out into the woods all on my own. Not when he put me in a pit filled with poisonous Black Vipers and I'd spent two days in the hospital, one hour of which was getting treatment with Anti-venom and forty-seven of which was spent with me sitting in bed meditating while the hospital staff tried to figure out how I'd gotten over a venomous bite so quickly and without problems.

I'd needed to know pain, and without injury my body would never learn to properly recover. I'd needed to learn independence and how not to get killed by a pack of wolves, how to take care of myself. And I'd needed to learn to conceal my presence from creatures known for seeming to have a sixth sense.

I learned incredibly quickly, surprising everyone around me, including my sensei and even myself. With each success and every day I continued to not only get stronger physically and mentally, but spiritually as well. So much so that by the time I was eight I'd gotten to the point where any Master, whether they had a dojo or not, would seem flabbergasted with my aptitude and I'd earned a Black Belt or better in more than sixty-nine different styles from all over Japan and a few from China.

School teachers seemed equally impressed with me. Since I'd been taking lessons from sensei and my father, there wasn't much I didn't already know by the time I got to a school.

But when the time came, I surprised my parents and my sensei both when I insisted on attending a secondary school on the grounds of wanting to socialize.

So, with a promise to my sensei that I'd continue meditating when not listening to boring lectures about things I already knew, and not 'socializing', I was made to attend Akimachi Middle School.

In my time there, I'd managed to make a small number of friends. Not many, just a couple of girls who weren't intimidated by my strength or skill. I'd also become somewhat popular as the girl who could translate when one of the more 'smartsy' kids would start throwing out strange lingo, like 'transistor', 'indigenous', or 'therapeutic'.

I also became popular for 'other' reasons.

* * *

When it came time to apply for a High School, my first choice had been Furinkan High, a school known for having a low dropout rate, but seemingly only because they had such incredibly low expectations of their students. The kids who went there often ended up becoming primary school teachers, construction workers, Martial Arts Masters, waitresses, factory workers, professional sports players, 'entertainers', taxi drivers, artists of various kinds (mostly manga and anime), and teachers at Furinkan High. Only about thirty percent of graduates went to college or university, and most of those only went to get their teaching degree in either Martial Arts or primary school, since the only requirements for teaching at Furinkan were a strong constitution, quick wit, an ability to handle emergencies, and lots and lots of patience.

When daddy asked me why I wanted to go **_there_**, of _all_ places, sensei had suddenly broken out laughing, which was an oddity enough for him.

"What's so funny?" Daddy was both confused, frustrated, and was beginning to feel both disappointed and maybe a bit insulted.

"Don't you get it, Nanashi? Ninety percent of the kids who go there are Martial Artists of some kind or another. The half who aren't secretly are. They've got so many crazies, psychos, nutcases, and loony-bin rejects, and the school's been assaulted, blown up, broken apart, and straight out student-rioted all over so many times in its history that the only reason it's still standing is because one of the wealthiest families in all of Japan keeps footing the bill! Since the day it was founded by those Kuno nutballs the school's attracted nothing but people just like them, or those who're too poor, too dumb, or too without honor to go anywhere else."

"… what?" My father seemed speechless for a second, still confused. I think I saw him mouth the words 'blown up?' at least once. Apparently he didn't read all the way through the file on the school that I'd drawn up. Finally, he got over his surprise and returned to his anger and confusion, "You see? That's exactly why I don't want my little girl going there! If she goes to a place like that, she's sure to become just like… them!" He then began to flip out a little, raising his hands above his head. "I mean, the very _idea_ that my little girl would be consorting with vagabonds, thieves, dropouts, bullies, morons, and dishonorable whelps! I refuse to allow her to go to such a place! She deserves much, _much_ better! And I'm going to make sure she gets it!"

_Click_

He was making to leave the room when I suddenly shut and locked the door, looking him straight in the eye. "Father dear, I think you missed the point entirely."

"Oh really? Then why don't you tell me what the point _is_?"

"The point, mister Takamura, is that _because_ that school is so full of Martial Artists and is so violent all the time, that they won't notice if they get handed one more. They won't notice if she jumps a little too high or runs a little too fast. Because it's so unpredictable, no one will notice if things start happening for seemingly no reason. Because it's so full of degenerates they won't notice if one more girl seems to be keeping secrets."

"The point, daddy, is that I don't want to have to worry about intimidating people away from me, or accidentally breaking them with a touch. I want to go somewhere where I _might_ be able to learn something about 'people', what they're thinking and feeling. I want to go somewhere with people who, yes, even think like I do, like someone who can be just any kid one second and ready for a fight on the drop of a dime. I need teachers who will understand if I suddenly disappear for a while, and know how to handle someone like me. I want to be around people a little closer to my skill level, not my grade level or IQ."

After I was finished with my improvised speech, I stood in silence, my heart racing just a bit and a slight lump in my throat. Experience in my old school had taught me what I needed, and Furinkan was what I needed, and I felt a bit passionately about that.

After a while, my father sighed in resignation, looking me directly in the eye. "You realize that with the grades you keep, you'll stick out like a sore thumb?"

I realized this, and had considered it. I nodded, "Yes, I do, and I know that my problems with people asking me to tutor them will be even worse there. I even considered purposely doing worse, sitting average with the other kids, just because I need to fit in _there._ Daddy, I need to be around other kids like me! I don't want to be seen as a freak or some kind of weird idol anymore, just because I'm different from everybody else."

Daddy sighed, and seemed to be considering it for a moment, and then he looked at sensei for a moment, and then back at me. He had that look that said he'd made up his mind. "Fine, you'll go to Furinkan. But if your grades start slipping or you start becoming a degenerate, I'm going to pull you out right away and enroll you in an all-girls school, do you hear me? ACK!"

"_Thank you daddy, thank you! I won't disappoint you!_" I then ran out of the room, laughing happily and leaving daddy to recover from the tremendous, slightly overexcited glomping I'd given him. Thankfully, the first time I'd broken one of his rib-bones doing as such, sensei had started him exercising to see that it didn't happen again. Apparently it worked.

Once he'd recovered, which was well after I was already out of the house, daddy turned to sensei. "I hope you don't try to keep me from finding out if she starts doing things I won't like? I'm her father and as such I'm responsible for her, and I'll keep her from seeing you if I think she needs it."

Sensei laughed once, "Takamura-san, trust me, you needn't be concerned. Mari-chan's as smart as they come and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon."

"See that it doesn't. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to lie down."

Sensei smiled as he watched daddy leave the room. He then left himself so that he and I could start our training session together.

Sensei was slightly surprised at the extra vigor I put into that night's training, especially the sparring.

* * *

Contrary to what many people seem to believe, not _everyone_ that lives in Nerima is fully aware of the weirdness that goes on there, or of the many high-caliber Martial Artists that call the district home. Indeed, many people aren't even aware of just _how many_ different Martial Arts schools and dojo's there are in Nerima! Of all the dojo's in Tokyo, more than half of them make their home in Nerima. And again, of all of Tokyo, no other district is so well-known for weird and chronically obsessed people and strange ideas as Nerima. But since most of the people who live in Nerima either live there _because_ of the chaos or _are_ the chaos, or they live there because they always have, most of the people of Nerima don't really notice just how out-of-the-ordinary the happenings of the district really are. All they know is that if they were to go anywhere else that they would find it strange just how bored they would get.

In other words, Nerima is weird by tradition. Those who like it or need it go there, those who were born there stay there, and as a result the people of Nerima have a much higher tolerance for the strange than most other places in the world.

After all, when you compare a district of more than six million people with one flying alien, or with one group of vagabond crime fighters, or a secret underground community of witches, demons, and monsters and the people who hunt them, with a district of six million people, every single one of whom has their own strange personality and habits, ranging from holding one's nose with every sip of tea or sake to making an entire Martial Arts form that consists entirely of talking ones opponent to sleep, then there really isn't much of a comparison.

With such a history of such brutal and blatant strangeness, one would think that the entire community would actually be infamous, that it would be a world-famous tourist spot. But the truth is that it isn't because no one realizes just how strange it is. Those who live among, and partake in the chaos of the area don't truly realize just how strange it really is to see a man with black and orange stripes with a tail coming out his butt just walking down the street. And to those who might consider going to the district, they're either attracted there by, completely horrified by, or skeptical of the stories told of the district by the people who live near to its borders. And those that are skeptical are usually either so excited to find people like themselves, which normally ends up just making the community grow that little bit stranger and more unpredictable, or are so shocked and/or horrified by what they see happening there and the people's non-committal non-reactions to it that they end up so shocked and scarred for life that any recollection of events witnessed there seems like a terrible nightmare or hallucination brought on by too much sake or bad sushi. The fact is that Nerima is so blatantly and openly strange and chaotic that its openness has quite effectively hidden its weirdness from the rest of the outside world.

In fact, the only real reason people normally ever think of it is because of the large number of highly-talented Martial Arts Masters produced there, and what the rest of the world doesn't really realize is that those who leave Nerima, and end up becoming famous for their strength and talent, left Nerima because they couldn't keep up with the rest of the district's many hundreds to thousands of fighters born, bred, and immigrated there every day.

I, myself, however, do not live in Nerima but in neighboring Juuban. While this does lead to exposure to rampaging demons and magical girls in colorful skirts blowing things up on a semi-regular basis (that means both the demons and magical girls), I do not actually spend the lion's share of my time out of the house in my home district, but rather running the streets, fences, and rooftops in Nerima, often training in its gravel pits, parks, underground caves, and with its many truly talented and powerful Martial Arts Masters in the many dojo's scattered throughout the district. In fact, when I'd opted to start secondary school a few years ago, it was a school in Nerima that I'd chosen because I already knew a small number of familiar faces and places in the area.

Throughout my time in that school I was exposed to many strange things. In fact, one of the teachers had actually been a true-to-life demon, not to mention a Nerima native.

And yet, when one is in Nerima, a district infamous (to its residents mostly) for its strangeness, there are few places one can go where _someone_ hasn't heard of Furinkan High School and it's famous line of incredibly wealthy House Kuno nutjobs.

This was something I found out on what was supposed to be my first day at the school, that it seemed _everyone_ had heard _something_ about that school. But, it seemed, _everyone_ also had differing ideas on the school, and that included just where it was located.

In all the time that I'd spent gathering information on Furinkan High School, its teachers, patrons, students, history and track-record, I'd never actually gotten an address. It quite honestly embarrassed me to no end that I'd forgotten something so trivial as the address of a school I'd spent three whole days researching. And because of my random direction-asking, I'd determined that the school was either in the seediest parts of town, or the richest, and that it was somewhere near a crumbled mountain, built on top of an ancient burial ground, suspended in the air by a hundred balsa-wood umbrellas, and/or near a drainage ditch/river/beach/open sewer line.

Even for Nerima, the bizarre stories that floated around Furinkan High School were both fanciful and contrived.

Finally, at around 2:30 PM, I just decided to stop asking people on the street and get some _real_ answers!

"Excuse me, did your uniform change color in the wash? If it did, you might want to look into some water-magic filters?"

The girl who'd addressed me with the (actually helpful, though wrong) advice was looking at me openly, specifically my Furinkan High School uniform, which was mostly blue, in contrast to this particular school's green. (Is Furinkan's uniform actually blue? O.o') "Ahm, no. Actually I don't go to this school, I'm lost and can't seem to find anyone who knows where my school is. Can you point me to the office?"

"Oh! Sure, it's straight down this hall to the end of the wing, left past the first-floor cafeteria, and it's the last door on the right. By the way, which school do you go to?"

"Furinkan High."

The girl seemed shocked suddenly, which I'd found to be a fairly standard reaction. That and suddenly pelting me with fudos (anti-evil wards), sympathetic support, and the rare 'Scream loudly while running around until you run into a light pole' reaction. "Oh! Well, I think that if you take a train up to Mt. Fuji Station and then take a boat ride down the river, the river flows right by Furinkan. At least that's what my brother told me..."

"Ah, thanks, but I think I'll just see if the office has an address I can use. Heck, I'm so late I probably just won't make it today. Damn, and I wanted to avoid getting in trouble…" I looked at the girl, who was now following me and looking me over. "Say, why aren't you in class?"

"Hmm?" She looked at me, as if she didn't immediately register the question. "Oh, there was an attack on one of my classmates with some teargas. So now my whole class is just wandering the halls 'till the fumes are pumped out."

"Ah,"

"Say, are you a Martial Artist?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"I just heard that most of the kids who go to Furinkan were Martial Artists."

I nodded, "Yeah, that's more-or-less true enough."

She blinked at me, "If you haven't been there yet, how can you say that?"

I looked back at her with a bland expression, "Do you think I'm stupid enough to go to a school like Furinkan without knowing what I'm getting into? I didn't have to go there to find its enrollment records or read the police reports..."

"Oh..." She then started walking in silence. I could practically _hear_ her thinking 'If she's a Martial Artist, then what in the heck do I talk about? Well, I suppose it's not hard to look stupid to someone who goes to a school like Furinkan... wait, that didn't sound right…'

Finally, she gave up trying to come up with a topic to talk about, "Sorry, I gotta go see if the classroom is open again. Bye!" She then went to jogging down a seemingly random hallway, though she seemed to be on the right track since I could smell teargas coming from that direction.

Putting that thought out of my mind, I proceeded to where she had told me the office was, got my directions (which actually involved street names and numbers), and went on to the school.

* * *

By the time I got there, there seemed to be an assembly of some kind, which by that time consisted mostly of representatives of the different clubs and teams trying to goad new students into joining them.

I wasn't really interested, but after walking around and considering the different options, I finally joined the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics team. Why did I join the team? And why didn't I join the Kendo club? Well, because I felt like it, that's why. And besides, those guys in the Kendo club all just stood there with their swords at their sides and their hands crossed inside their sleeves, looking for all intents and purposes like some kind of gang. Besides, a lot of what I'd been doing for most of my life was rather similar to Gymnastics, and the Martial Arts part of it was really a pretty good bonus for me. I might have considered the Swim Team, if the school'd had one, but there was _no_ way I was going to join the 'Martial Arts Ballet' club, or the 'Martial Arts Cheerleading' squad.

After the convention was finished (though it really didn't make much of a difference by that point since official classes for the day had already ended and a lot of students had already left), I left to go to a nearby park and deep meditate until my sensei found me.

* * *

I'd been in deep meditation for more than an hour, though it might as well have been a few minutes to me, when sensei found me and we went to spar.

"Is something wrong, Mari-chan? You seem a little slow today." This said as he ducked a punch powerful enough to shatter concrete.

"It's nothing." This said as sensei rolled out of the way of a down-chop that I had followed up my punch with.

"It's not nothing," _CRASH_ "if it's bothering you enough to slow you down." This said as I dodged a punch that _did_ shatter concrete.

"Well, I was late for school today." Sensei dodged my knee-jab for his chin, which I followed by extending that leg at him. Unfortunately, I really did seem to be off as I misjudged the distance and he was able to grab onto my foot.

He then jerked my leg hard enough to nearly dislocate it, throwing me into a nearby tree, and he was _still_ able to dodge the kick that I'd used my other leg to try to hit him in the head with!

"Really? Why'd you do that?"

"I couldn't find it, and everyone I asked gave me different directions from everybody else." I grumped slightly as the tree I'd been rammed into fell over atop me.

"I sense a 'but'?"

I growled, "But, the worst thing is... _I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T LOOK UP THE STUPID ADDRESS!"_ In a short-lived fit of anger, I grabbed onto the tree that was atop me and swung it around, slamming it furiously against what was left of the trunk below where I'd hit it, obliterating it.

Sensei nodded sagely. "I see."

I sighed, dropping the shattered tree trunk, "Kinda stupid, huh?"

"Yes. Though it is unusual for you?" Sensei just stood there for a moment, waiting for me to answer.

"Yeah. I guess I just thought I'd be able to ask directions and that'd be good enough. Fat lot of good that did me." I mock-kicked the ground, disturbing a few blades of grass.

"I see. Yes, directions in Nerima _can_ be rather… contrived, and quite often inaccurate. But I'd thought you would know that by now?"

I frowned, "I've never needed them before, remember? I usually explored an area before doing anything there… And you know what?"

"What's that?"

"The school is far enough from home that I won't be able to foot it every morning without ending up all sweaty all day! I'd given thought to renting an apartment that's closer, but I don't know how daddy'll react."

"Well I don't think it'll be too bad, though he may use it as an excuse for getting you to go to a different school..."

"Yeah..." I looked at the ground for a second or to. "But I don't think I could go to a different school. I mean... heck, even if not much else, I might be able to have a good influence on the place, right? And besides that, I think I found a team-club I might like."

"Oh? What's that?"

I smirked, "It's the 'Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics' team. I signed up today and tryouts are this Thursday."

Sensei adopted a surprised look for a moment as he looked at me. "Well… hell. Back when I was in school, girl's weren't even allowed to do sports, and now they've got a Martial Arts sport made just _for_ girls."

I frowned slightly, "And when _were_ you in school, sensei?"

He chuckled, "A long time ago. And I was quite the spitfire back then too, just like you now. Though, since I didn't really have a sensei to speak of, I wasn't quite as… talented as you are now."

I smiled mischievously, "Really? So you're saying I'm better than you?"

"Hahaha! Well, I wouldn't go that far! Back then I focused more on strength and power than speed or skill, I'm just saying I didn't have anyone telling me how good or how fast I _should_ be, only that I was better than they were."

I smiled, "Hmm, okay. But where did you go to school? Furinkan?"

He chuckled yet again, "Actually, yes. I went to Furinkan and tore things up just like everybody else. And then I found myself a sensei, and the rest is history..."

I didn't miss the hidden meaning behind his words, I knew that that was all that he was going to tell me, I wasn't going to be getting any more. Something that sometimes tore me up about my sensei was that I really didn't know much about him; only that he was really strong and valued control over anything else. But I'd eventually gotten the message, the message that something had changed him, something he didn't like to think or talk about, and I didn't want to prod, even though it was killing me.

After a few seconds, I took a quick breath and looked up at him. "Sensei, can I ask you something?"

"You can ask."

"Sensei... what's your name? I've never asked before?"

Sensei chuckled a bit, "What's my name?" I nodded, "Alright, I'll bite. My name is Radi Kumon."

"Radi… I like it."

'Radi' smirked at me, "Though I still expect you to call me 'sensei'. It makes me feel important."

I giggled a bit, "Of course, sensei."

"Good, now let's go talk to your father."

"Sure!" Sensei leapt away towards home, and I followed him.

'… Radi Kumon… I don't recognize that name. Though I suppose that doesn't really change much…'

* * *

I looked around my now sparsely littered apartment. Father was surprisingly lenient on allowing me to take an apartment near the school, considering how much of a fuss he'd put up against me _going_ to Furinkan. Of course, he did insist that I pay my own way, and that anything other than my camping supplies would have to stay at home, which really meant that I was on my own for food too.

I shrugged the thought away. Sensei had made sure I could handle being on my own for any period of time.

Although, this wasn't the forest, though it was close with all the hot and sweaty beasts running around howling at all hours of the night. Still, food wasn't going to just saunter right up to me, begging me to kill and eat it. Oh, there were beasts here just _begging_ to be killed, but that was for reasons entirely separate from food.

The best I'd actually managed was a run-down apartment building with leaky ceilings and floors, with no power, and little to no heating to speak of (so I'd been told). In fact, the whole building seemed to only still be standing because no one had destroyed it yet. And in Nerima, large and old buildings like this were a rarity.

What managed for furnishing were really little more than the better share of my normal camping supplies. I had a deep green-black tent set up and tucked away in the corner, nothing holding it down since it wasn't really necessary indoors. An equally dark-toned sleeping bag with plenty of padding and some room still left to grow was laid out beneath a rain-cover that extended off the entrance of the tent, providing me minimal protection from the possibility of busted water mains or sewage pipes, which were common problems in Nerima, really. I wouldn't be surprised if something broke, either in my apartment building or at the school, within the first week to month of my being here.

Beyond that, I really only had my travel pack, which had some of the necessary things for a girl to be staying out on her own for an indeterminable amount of time. Nothing fancy, just the essentials, like clean clothes and toiletries.

Really, I could have done a lot worse than this for just two yen a day (which really only accounted for the door and lock), and it would do me until I'd earned some staying money somehow. I'm sure I could probably get a waitressing job or something somewhere, at which point I could safely afford something significantly better.

'Damn, I can't believe he's pushing me so hard on this. Oh well, I guess I can't turn to my parents forever. Oh well, whatever. I need to stretch my muscles a bit.'

I left my apartment as it was, locked the door, and left to go find a park or something where I could do a nice kata before hitting the hay for the night.

* * *

The next morning I made it to school a little bit ahead of time, which allowed me to get to my classroom before class started. I didn't get the chance to start any conversations, however, since as soon as I got there so did the teacher, a man with a pointy nose holding up thin-framed glasses. I was then immediately sent to the hall to hold a pair of buckets of water.

I wasn't there for very long before I saw a shorter girl with short black hair and blue eyes running toward the classroom door. Before she went inside, she looked at me, frowned to herself with a slight groan, and seconds later was standing next to me with her own set of buckets.

"Sleep in late?"

"Ah, um, no. I lost track of time this morning…" The girl seemed shy and was gazing at the floor, standing there totally still.

"So… uh, d'you live near here?" she nodded. "Well I… Oh! I'm being rude! My name is Mari Takamura, so what's your name?"

"I'm Mei Senada."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Mei!"

"You too."

I sighed and leaned back against the wall as I tried to come up with something to strike up a conversation. This first meeting stuff was hard!

"Man, I'm not good at this stuff…"

"What stuff?"

"This, talking and trying to come up with something to talk about. I'm no good at any of that…"

"Oh? Why not?"

I sighed and shrugged, "I dunno. Never really had much reason to learn. I was home schooled a lot as a kid."

"Really? Me too."

"Oh? How long have you been going to public school?"

"This is my second day."

"Ah. I went to Junior High a couple of years before this, but I didn't make many friends there either. Most of the kids… thought I didn't wanna talk, or something. And there were a few people I wish I _hadn't_ met…" I frowned as some memories came to me.

"I haven't had much of a chance to meet anybody up to now, I was always running around too much, training in Martial Arts and learning how to be a 'proper lady' at the same time." Mei frowned as well, at what were apparently a few similarly sour memories to my own.

"Martial Arts, huh? You any good?"

Mei smiled, "You could say that. I've been training all my life!"

I laughed, "You ain't the only one, either! Wow, I came here to find Martial Artists, and I find one first day! Imagine the odds!" I smiled to myself as I tried to do the math and found myself without proper variables on which to base my calculations. I then shrugged that thought away as silly and pointless.

Mei smiled as she looked sidelong at me, "Maybe we should spar sometime?"

I laughed again, "I'd love to, but maybe later. I think we're in enough trouble as it is, no sense in tearing up the hallway, ne?"

We both chuckled at this.

She and I spent the next ten to fifteen minutes talking about whatever came to mind. The first stumbling block had been hurdled and we were on our way to being friends. After twenty minutes of standing in the hall we were allowed back into the classroom to identify ourselves.

I spent the first ten to twenty minutes of each class standing in the hallway that day. And since none of my other classmates felt like making troublemakers of themselves I spent this time alone. Needless to say, I got plenty of meditation time in that day.

At lunch I met up with Mei and we talked some more. We started off with describing past senseis and training methods, comparing what we'd done or not done. Mei seemed rather taken with my 'mysterious sensei', and when I told her his name she seemed to recognize it at least vaguely, but couldn't seem to make anything of it. She also seemed fascinated by what life was like living in Juuban, acting as if it were something fanciful and exciting, and asking me how many times I'd seen those famous Juuban Magical Girls and how many of the demons I'd fought myself. When I said that I'd only ever seen one of them myself, and that the Sailors had taken it down before I could get to it myself, I tried to stress just how rare those demons really were, as the news reports made it out to seem like everyone and their great grandmother had run across a demon at some point, that they were as abound as demons teaching Martial Arts were in Nerima. She got a chuckle out of that last line, but had to admit it was true.

We both decided that we would spar after school got out in a gravel pit not far from the school. Neither of us had open access to a dojo, so this seemed the best alternative.

* * *

Something that people outside of Nerima find strange about the district is its gravel pits. They never have any kind of heavy equipment in them, and yet they always produce.

A non-kept, and yet not-known secret of Neriman gravel pits is that they don't have equipment because they don't need it, the Martial Artists of the area do the extracting and pounding all on their own.

As such, it makes sense that there are a good number of them placed at strategic positions throughout the city, and the one near Furinkan High School was the largest, most jagged one of all. It was the perfect place for rowdy teenagers with the strength to pound solid granite to gravel and a bit too much energy to work some aggression out of their muscles.

Once we got there, Mei and I got to looking each other over. I had quick-changed into a simple white gi with a black sash, while she had found a restroom to change into a yellow shirt and blue overalls. Almost oddly, we both individually opted to go barefoot, since shoes would have only gotten shredded anyway, what with how sharp some of the surround rock formations were, created by Martial Artists pounding on them and chipping them into almost sword and blade-like formations in places, with sharp little rock-chips strewn about around them.

At first, we started out slow, going through the motions that normal black belts would probably stick to for the rest of their lives, growing famous outside Nerima but not getting any notice while there. Every couple of minutes we would continue to go up a dan in skill until it was starting to look like we were pushing our limits.

I was happy to find that my new friend had skill and strength both to possibly be able to push me to my limits, or at least get me reasonably close. So as a test I started using a bit of my ki, openly displaying it as an aura wash of white that floated about me.

She responded in kind, displaying a similar aura in a serene-looking blue color. With a wild smirk, I flared my energy a bit, drew it back in, and started attacking with dramatically increased speed.

Mei responded by showing that she could think ahead, blasting the ground beneath her, shrouding her position. I stopped for a moment, then backed away and tried to gauge just where it was she was going to come at me from.

At the last possible second I sensed a slight wave of ki from behind me, and then a stream of fire erupted from my back as I was struck at least a hundred times inside a second.

Stumbling away, I tried to recollect my senses as I called on my chi to attempt to repair any damage to my back and especially my spine. I couldn't seem to see Mei with my eyes, so I figured she must still be Walking With The Shadows, one of the techniques she'd told me about at lunch. As I recovered from her previous attack, I mused on what it must be like to battle the girl in the mid of night, and decided that I would ask her some time.

I wasn't distracted for long, but it was long enough to get a kick in my back and end up eating dirt. Or stone, anyway. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't taste good.

Remembering my situation, I put my concentration back into seeing through Mei's Shadows technique. By watching very closely, I noticed that just before she attacked there was a slight change in the ki where she was going to attack from; nothing too obvious, more like passing a weak lens through some water, barely discernable, but there all the same. And with that knowledge, I was able to dodge as I tried to find something, anything that would cue me in to where she was!

With some quick thinking, I found a way to get some space between myself and my assailant, and blasted the ground, forming a plume of dust and stone that hid me from view. As I went to work, I continued to make multiple plumes of dust and ended up obscuring the better part of the battlefield.

I imagine Mei was confused when the dust settled to reveal me… standing simultaneously in thirty different places, and each one complete with my own ki signature.

I stood completely still, blending in with my multiple doubles as perfectly as I could. My eyes were closed, but so were those of the other me's, as being the only one that needed to blink would give me away rather quickly.

I watched with my mind's eye as Mei started moving through the doubles, periodically striking and obliterating one of them seemingly at random.

'Almost… is that it? Well, I can always try it!' "YAAHH!"

Soon after I found that I'd struck air, a hit in the side sent that double falling to the ground, her usefulness gone. I then went about re-checking what I'd seen, using the ki signatures of my doubles as extra eyes to give me that slight advantage.

"YIKES!" I was then forced to jump away as what I'd seen revealed that she'd found me as well, and had come rushing at me.

With a little back-hop, I prepared to properly defend myself, keeping my eyes closed to keep from getting confused. It paid off when she rushed me again and I blocked all of her strikes rather handily.

Finally, she backed off, as did I.

My heart was racing, and I was breathing hard. I was beaten, bruised, and scraped with blood all over. And I was in heaven. My entire being was filled with the euphoria that only someone who had pushed themselves to the very edge of their existence in this world could feel. It was like a wild and spastic joy that only Martial Arts and pushing myself to my very limits could give, and I loved every moment of it.

With a silly grin plastered on my face, I opened my eyes, giving Mei, who I could quite easily sense still standing where she'd stopped, a thumbs up in approval.

Rightly, she dropped her cloaking, showing that she, too had that silly grin on her face, and gave me the same gesture of approval.

"Bravo! Encore! Encore!" I fell on my face as the sound of my sensei clapping and cheering the two of us on snapped us out of… whatever we were doing, or thinking, or whatever. It caught our attention, how's that?

"Sensei! What are you doing here?"

"What? I can't watch my protégée fight?" He hopped down from a tall crag of stone, approaching the two of us with a silly grin on his face. "I mean, even without the Martial Arts, it's still a pretty good show!" I blanched as he raised one eyebrow and eyed my shirt, which had been rather effectively shredded when I'd gone to eating dirt.

"ACK!" I then employed some rather quick speed dressing to replace the rogue garment, replacing it entirely with a simple white cotton dress I had stored in stuff space for just such an occasion. Sensei laughed heartily as I mumbled about perverts and cheap sports bras.

After we all recovered from that, I waved to indicate Mei, "Sensei, this is Mei Senada, my new friend from school. Mei, this is my sensei, 'Mr. Mysterious'."

Mei bowed deeply, "It's good to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine, fair warrioress! A beautiful maiden capable of keeping up with my little Mari-chan? I never thought I'd see the day! Haha!" With a quick chuckle, sensei bowed deeply and with a bit too much flourish, "Radi Kumon, at your service, should you ever need it?"

"Ahhahahaaa, no, I'm fine, thanks." She then whirled on me, "What was that you did? How did you make doubles of yourself like that? Out of rock, no less!"

I chuckled nervously a bit, "Uh, it's related to some of those ninja techniques. Technically it isn't, I just made it off an idea, but the principle's basically the same."

"Oh?" Mei raised an eyebrow, interested.

I nodded, "Yeah. I could teach you, if you like?"

"Okay, yeah! But… how'd you make it move like that?"

I shrugged, "I just changed the way it was built, using my chi basically. It takes a _lot_ of practice and concentration. My first few attempts just blew up in my face. I can teach you, but I wouldn't expect much." I shook my head slowly as all the little rules and conditions needed to master the technique scrolled through my head momentarily.

Then it was Mei's turn to shrug, "That's okay by me. Other than homework, and a few chores at home, I haven't got much else to do, and I don't expect homework to take all that long..." 'especially if you already know all the answers.' I finished her thought in my head, feeling almost confident she was thinking somewhere along the same lines.

"Well, do you wanna get together and study sometime?"

"Tonight?"

"Do you wanna?"

"Sure! Your place or mine?"

I blushed nervously despite myself and rubbed the back of my head, "Um, my place isn't really… ready for visitors. You'd have to deal with all sorts of crap if you came over there…"

"Okay, my place then."

"Sure! Let's go!"

"'Kay!" Mei ran off, out of the gravel pit and I followed her.

Sensei watched us leave with a smile on his face, and then suddenly looked surprised, "Hey! Wait for me!"

* * *

"Mrs. Tetsia purchases 8 puppies. Her total bill for the puppies is 332000 yen. The cost of a Doberman is the cost of a Schitzu plus 10000. The cost of a Terrier is half that of a Schitzu. If Mrs. Tetsia purchases 3 Schitzu, and the total cost of all Terriers was 72000, find how many of each breed was bought, how much was spent on each breed, and what the price of each breed was." I looked again at the question. It made perfect sense to me, but there was just one thing that bothered me. "Didn't they have a question like this on the entrance exams?"

Mei shrugged, "I think so. Maybe they're testing us? Seeing how stupid we really are?"

"Or smart?"

Mei shrugged again, "May as well give it a try?"

Fifteen minutes later, after scratching out all sorts of ideas on paper, throwing ideas back and forth, and getting all the numbers down without using calculators (since we were pretty sure they weren't allowed, and were expensive yet to boot), we had what we were pretty sure was the right answer.

Terrier Doberman Schitzu

# of dogs: 3 2 3

Per dog: 24000 58000 48000

Totals: 72000 116000 144000

"Maybe we weren't actually supposed to answer it?"

I shrugged the question off, "Eh, we did anyway. Is that it for math?"

"Yeah. History next?"

I sunk into my seat, "Man, history depresses me…"

"Why's that? Not that I'm disagreeing…"

"It's just that… well, 'History is written by the victors,' and all that. It's usually so hard to figure out what actually happened, especially when it's about the infamous 'other guys'." I sighed, moving a stray strand of hair from my face, "No one ever stops to think what the other guy was thinking, what they were fighting for, and especially not just how close they _really_ came to winning. There isn't any gray area, the winners are the good guys and the losers the bad guys."

Mei pointed at her book, "Not what it says about the Greater East Asian War."

I smiled as I nodded, "Yeah, better known as World War 2. Japan lost that one, but still got the chance to write history how they wanted. That just goes to show just how forgiving the Americans really were."

Mei raised an eyebrow, "Forgiving? What about Nagasaki? Or Hiroshima?"

I looked Mei in the eye with a deadpan expression, "They could have done worse. They could have targeted Greater Tokyo. They could have targeted the Emperor's family and eliminated Japan's government as a whole. Remember, it was us who got them involved in the first place; they had the right to hold a grudge. They were neutral and we kicked them in the back of the head."

Mei couldn't help but agree, "Yeah. Kind of stupid too. The whole point was to make them give up before starting, but they had the resources to win, they always did, and we just gave them the reason to get involved."

I nodded, "If we hadn't… well, how would the world be right now? Would it be as peaceful? Would we be living under the Iron hand of Nazi rule? Would the Americans have eventually gotten involved anyway? Would it have mattered by then? Would the USSR have stopped the whole thing anyway, and then taken up the reigns, making us all under Soviet rule? Would we even be having this conversation? Let alone in Japanese…" I sighed as I sunk a little further into a plush beanbag chair, "No matter what everybody thinks of them, the Americans really do got a good thing going, and they're right to want to let other people have it too."

"Yeah… but you know, Japan never would have joined the Axis if America hadn't cut off oil. We never would have needed to invade China and never would have bombed Crystal Harbor."

"Pearl Harbor."

"Whatever. The point is, we aren't all at fault."

I sighed again, breathing deep and then letting the air go slowly out through my nose, "Yeah, I know that too. War makes people do stupid things, and hindsight is 20-20, and history is full of both of them. Do you see what I mean 'history is depressing'?"

Mei smirked and held up her book where I could see it, "It's also a required course. We can say it sucks all we want, but if we don't learn from it then there's no point in keeping it around, ne?"

I smiled wistfully, "Yeah. It's always better to learn from your mistakes, what gets me is just that some people refuse to believe they made a mistake; they want to believe they're perfect, but they're not. No one's perfect, that's why I like the way America's set up. Instead of just one person making all the decisions, they've got everybody involved, so somebody you've never heard of can think of a better idea than yours that solves all your problems without causing more, and the way they've got it that voice can be heard." I suddenly sat up straight, pulled out my history book, and a notebook of paper, "But I'm off-track again. So, where are we in here? I can't remember?"

"Page one, right where it says 'History sucks.'"

I looked at the page with wide eyes, and then smiled. "Well waddya know? They're willing to admit it!" We then set about to study history for a while.

* * *

Sensei and I trained for a while after that, him saying that if I can try that hard in a friendly spar with a friend, then I should be able to do just as well with him. After that, I'm not really sure when it was I got back to my apartment, but after a quick scrub to get the smell of sweat off of me I went straight to bed, tired beyond belief.

I smiled as I lay there, happy with how my day had gone.

* * *

The next day I woke up really early to train some more with sensei, was on time to school even with a quick scrub to remove all the dirt and sweat I'd gathered, didn't have to stand in the hall through my classes, followed along with the teachers, and managed to not attract too much attention during history. Altogether, my day was going pretty well, up until lunch.

Mei and I were sitting in the corner of the schoolyard, chatting among each other; mostly about Martial Arts and the various techniques we had amassed, keeping ourselves from revealing _too_ much more out of habit than from feeling any necessity to keep it secret. Mei, it turns out, also was able to come up with a number of other topics to talk about, once she'd gotten started.

And then I heard it. "ANGEL!"

Recognizing the call, I immediately groaned as I sank a bit.

"Friend of yours?"

"No."

"Angel! What are you doing in this two-bit school? Ptooie!" A brown haired, brown eyed boy wearing an as-yet unidentified school uniform of some kind spit onto the concrete to his left, and then turned his face to address me with a regal and pompous air, "Come with me, that we might ascend together to the heavens as the gods might bask in our glory unbridled!"

"Go away Mario, I don't feel like dealing with you today."

"Ah, you are shy, and do not wish to deprive these mere mortals the ray of heavenly bliss that is your presence! Well worry not, Angel of mine eye for I-"

"You there! What right have you to disgrace this fine establishment? Explain yourself, knave!"

I groaned deeper as I saw Tatewaki Kuno, upperclassman and all-around idiot confronting Mario Madina, former classmate and idiot of equal caliber to Tatewaki Kuno, face off with each other. I could easily see whispers passing between the various students around the schoolyard, and each eye that turned toward me felt like a stabbing prong of either ridicule or sympathy for me.

'Please! Just make it go away?' My prayers went unanswered as Mario turned to face Tatewaki, addressing the wannabe samurai with just as much pomp as he'd been given.

"My name, if you must know, is Mario Madina, and this does not concern you! It involves only my Angel and I! Now, as I was saying!"

"Do not turn your back on me, Tatewaki Kuno! Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, captain of the Kendo Club, and rising star of the Kendo world! Have at thee!" The way he said that, I realized, would have made the unknowing confused as to whether Kuno was saying his name was Tatewaki Kuno, or if he was calling Mario by that name. Ah, the blunders of idiots…

Mario turned again to address the upperclassman in samurai robes, and was immediately floored by the end of his wooden sword. "Gah!"

"Hath thee yet had enough punishment, knave?"

Mario tried to return to his feet, one word escaping his lips, "Aaannngelll…"

"Not down yet, knave? For your disgrace on this school, and on this fair maiden, in the name of the Blue Thunder, I shall punish thee! En guarde!"

I was then treated to a sight I wished I had seen long ago, Mario being pummeled by an angry kendoist. Well, perhaps the kendoist part I hadn't specified, but it worked nonetheless.

"He's holding back." Mei indicated the fact that Kuno seemed to be using the broad side of his bokken to strike Mario, rather than the point, and was hitting him over as much surface area as possible.

I nodded, "I know."

I watched as Mario fell to the ground, bruised and unconscious, but otherwise okay.

I then addressed Tatewaki as he sheathed his bokken. "I thank you, samurai, for your assistance in dealing with this bother, and for not treating him _too_ harshly, as he is delicate and I would not wish him broken because he refuses to believe I do not return his feelings for me. But if you could be so kind as to have him deposited in the nearest garbage receptacle, I would be grateful."

Kuno's face brightened in an oh-too-familiar way, "Do not worry, as you may date with… you are not the goddess in pigtails." As he seemed to make a realization, Kuno's face became a mask of almost accusation mixed in with confusion.

"Who?"

"Thy bust is much too small to belong to the goddess of my dreams." As soon as he'd affirmed to himself of his mistake, Tatewaki quickly stood stock straight and bowed quickly to me, "Ah! I must apologize, but I am afraid that my heart is already spoken for, therefore in parting I may only offer you this to remember myself by." He handed me a bouquet of roses with black petals, which I looked at suspiciously, "'Tis of the making of my twisted sister, but I assure you they are quite safe, I have seen to it myself. Now, to deal with this vagabond that disgraces this school with his presence. Sasuke!"

"Master Tatewaki?" Suddenly, a ninja in purple ninja garb fell out of the sky directly in front of Tatewaki.

"You are not Sasuke?"

"I'm afraid Sasuke is busy attending to your sister's wishes, I have been chosen to temporarily attend to you, my lord."

"Ah, yes, very well. I wish this fiend here deposited in the nearest garbage receptacle, and off of these sacred grounds of learning. I shall now retake my post and watch over these grounds, as is my duty."

"Yes, my lord." 'Sasuke' bowed, and immediately picked the bruised body off the ground. He then started looking around, confused, mostly between Tatewaki, the boy, and a nearby dumpster.

I decided to help him. "He means put him in the nearest dumpster off-campus."

"Ah, I see. Thank you, miss, I wasn't fully sure." With a quick bow, he leapt off, carrying the limp form to its destination in the nearest dumpster.

With the 'pompous one' temporarily dealt with, and Kuno gone, the tension in my shoulders bled out and I let loose a monstrous sigh.

"I didn't know you spoke pompous jerk-ese?"

I shrugged, "It's all just talking in circles and surrounding everything in lace. When you really get down to it, it's really all just the same as normal, to a point."

I still felt nervous, somewhat, as I could still hear the sounds of gossip spreading throughout the school, doubtless reaching even the most remote ear in mere moments.

With a groan, I tried to see just how far into the ground I could sink without using my chi. "I was hoping he wouldn't find me…"

"Who, upperclassman Kuno?"

"No, Mario. I was hoping to never see him again. Man, I'm so embarrassed!"

"Oh, him. Why's he following you, anyway?"

"I don't wanna say."

"Why not?"

"Because there's already going to be enough gossip as there is about this."

Suddenly, a totally random girl approached me; "You should arrange something with one of Nabiki's girls."

I blinked at the unexpected interruption, "Nabiki's girls?"

She nodded, "Nabiki controls the information lines in this school. If you tell us the story, we'll keep some control on the rumor mill."

I thought about it for a moment, and then looked back at the girl, "Alright, what's the catch?"

"Catch?"

I nodded, "Catch. In any deal there's always a catch. I don't like owing people anything, especially somebody I don't know. I want to know what this 'Nabiki' wants in return."

The girl huffed as she sat on the ground in front of me, "Nabiki deals in information. You tell us the story; we sell it to anyone who wants to know. That's how it works."

"And I'm sure that altering the story to meet Nabiki's ends isn't a part of the picture? Information can be a powerful weapon, as can trust. So just how trustworthy is this Nabiki?"

The girl seemed cross about something, then calmed, "Spreading false information would ruin our credibility, Nabiki deals in information, not stories."

I sighed. She had a good point. "Alright, but I want to talk to this Nabiki personally. There's something I want to discuss with her that has nothing to do with information. As for Mario, he's just a moron who thinks I like him, and won't listen when I tell him otherwise. He's a total weakling, though, and I don't want to hurt him too badly by getting rid of him physically."

"But why is he so hung up on you? What happened to affect him like that?"

I shrugged, "I doubt if he remembers himself. It's ancient history that I don't want to say anything about." And I left it at that.

She nodded, got up, and left. I could only hope that the wrong thing wouldn't be said somewhere along the line and end up with me being even more the talk of the day.

But that wasn't it for me quite yet that day.

* * *

"Aaaghaa! That's hot!" I practically leapt sky-high as some random girl in my class poured boiling hot water down my back in the changing room.

The random girl turned to another random girl, "She didn't change? Could it not be him?"

"It's gotta be him! You know what he's like!"

"I do?"

"Yeah! Try it again."

"HEY!" Angry, I took the bucket of hot water the second girl had handed the first straight from her hand, "Just what the heck do you think you're doing?"

The second girl chuckled superiorically, "We know it's you, Ranma! So why don't you just show yourself and get out of here!"

That statement got the attention of the other girls in the room, who all quickly surrounded the three of us.

"What?" I frowned angrily, "Look, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not this Ranma character. And why the heck would you act like this anyway? Do you have a grudge or something? Did she take your uniform one day?" I smirked as I saw the effect this had on the second girl.

Suddenly, the girls' faces seemed more inquisitive and confused than confrontational and angry, "What?" I blinked. I could suddenly tell that there was something on my chest that wasn't a bra. Looking down I saw a shriveled up gnome with a sack looking sourly at my exposed breasts, kneading them with his hands. "This isn't Ranma-chan!"

"GAH!" In my surprise, I backpedaled once and ended up tripping on a bench, falling on my butt and throwing the bucketful of water straight on my head.

"Oh well, SWEETO anyway!"

"EEEK!" "AAGH!" "WHAT THE HELL?" "GAH! GET IT OFF!" "Ahh! My bra! He took my bra!" "And my panties too!" "GET HIM!" "WHAT A HAUL! WHAT A HAUL!"

I sat there for a moment longer as the rowdy crowd stormed out the door, many still buck-naked, following the bouncing little underwear-stealing gnome; with righteous woman's rage backing the swings of their various floor-cleaning instruments.

Angry, but not quite ready to join the Pervert-Pounders, I withdrew another set of underwear from stuff space, finished dressing for gym class, and went on to the field to find Mei waiting for me.

We then did whatever it was we ended up doing that day in gym class, doing our best not to overdo it too much. The fact that most of the girls didn't return until the end of the class period meant that we really didn't actually do much.

* * *

Mei and I stared each other down, once again getting ready to spar, to push each other and ourselves to our limits.

On a sudden signal both of us recognized but that neither of us could identify we blasted into motion. Opting to go without the warm-up we'd had yesterday, we both went straight into the real fight.

Once she'd figured out that her Walking With The Shadows technique wasn't going to work, she instead started throwing around energy blasts and picking up a lot of dust and making a whole lot of noise, trying to get in close to me and get a few hits in where she could. Neither of us actually used a many special techniques, and instead we simply went as fast and as hard as we could, trying to get in our licks and having the time of our lives in the process.

After that we studied for a while, and when we were done with that Mei practically begged me to start showing her how to do 'that double technique'.

And so I relented and pulled out my favorite and oldest of equipment, my old wooden blocks.

"What're these for?"

"I'll show you." Putting the large, 1000-block box on the ground, I grabbed a block right at the top, one of the corners, and pulled up on it.

As I did that, the other blocks followed behind it, never losing contact even once. Seconds later I was holding the top block of a pyramid shape made of more than 200 separate blocks. (204 actually.)

"I used to just pile them up, making all sorts of shapes and learning how to make things out of all these little parts so that it wouldn't just fall apart. That's how I got started in Martial Arts to begin with, and then as I got better with my chi I started using it to move them around without using my hands. I got better and better with it and eventually got to where I could do just about anything with just about anything." I started demonstrating my mastery of the blocks, showing that I could choose which blocks to keep, where each block was, and my ability to re-shape them in different ways.

When Mei started trying to do this, the first thing she did was pick up the top block off of a pyramid five levels high. I reminded her to use her chi, which she did, and she ended up forcefully scattering the blocks in all directions.

"Hehe, it takes practice to get it right, you have to do it just right, or else it won't work like you want it to." I took one of the scattered blocks and touched one of the corners against one of the other blocks, and then lifted it into the air so that the corner of both blocks were the only things touching, "Try just picking up one block at a time to start, then move up as you get better."

Mei nodded in affirmation, and started trying to do just that, without success.

Standing up, I stretched a bit, "Well, I'm gonna head out. Sensei's probably waiting for me. See ya tomorrow!"

"See ya." Last I saw of her that night, Mei was fully engrossed in trying to get the two blocks to 'stick'.

* * *

That next morning the first thing I did when I woke up at five AM was to check whether or not my uniform was dry or not from the washing I'd given it the night before.

Finding that it was dry enough to work, I then set about to do some morning exercises, bouncing through the streets performing a lightning-fast kata while also keeping an eye out for want ads. As I did that, I reflected on recent events.

Mario was something that seemed to be a rather difficult problem to tackle. I was planning on enlisting Nabiki's help on this one, but wasn't holding out much hope of coming to a deal I could be happy with as far as that was concerned. As a result, I benched that whole thing for later.

Next was school, and my upcoming Rhythmic Gymnastics tryouts. Now that I thought about it, I wasn't really even sure if I _wanted_ to join. Not only would it have me showing off, showing just how much better than the average girl I really was, but also it would likely severely cut into my free time. I finally came to the decision that I would ask my sensei what his thoughts on the situation were.

Taking a quick note of my bio-energies, I readjusted them just slightly to perform more efficiently and without much thought, and returned to my other thoughts.

The other students at my school, and a few teachers even, seemed to be mistaking me for this 'Ranma' person. Yes, I did remember who Ranma was, and yes, my bright red hair did go a long way toward explaining their assumptions. But I simply couldn't figure out how they could think I was Ranma! From what I remembered, Ranma-chan had blue eyes, where mine were most definitely oak brown. True, I didn't exactly look in the mirror very often, unless it was for a specific reason, but I was pretty sure that I didn't really look like this Ranma person!

Even more disturbing, really, was the fact that I had yet to see the Martial Artist in question. This was going to be my third full day at the school and I had yet to see him _or_ her! Of course, I wasn't even sure which grade he was supposed to be in, but by the actions of all the others around me it would have seemed as if s/he'd gone missing.

But what almost surprised me more was that I hadn't noticed this before. I'd come to Furinkan to see Ranma, right? Didn't I? Well, there was that little matter of fitting in, but with enough work I could have done that just about anywhere, right? But with Ranma gone already, then how was I supposed to meet him? I'd wanted to train with him!

But as I thought about it, I realized that even if I had known where he'd gone, I most likely wouldn't have followed him anyway. I had barely even realized it, but I seemed to have almost immediately developed an attachment to Mei-chan, and I wouldn't go anywhere and leave her behind, I somehow just knew that I wouldn't.

Mei and I were just so much alike, it was almost scary. We were both extra super smart, uber good at Martial Arts, and had many of the same problems with other kids our age. About the only real differences I could see between us was that, where I was hyper, open, happy, and eager to socialize, Mei seemed much more subdued, shy and quiet around others, only showing any real energy when talking about or sparring in Martial Arts. I imagined her parents must have done a number on her in the name of making her into a 'proper lady', though I wasn't really sure how Martial Arts fit into such a closed view of society and the ideas of a proper lady. With how Mei-chan acted, I almost expected her to start showing up to our spars wearing a kimono, or insisting that she practice her flower arranging.

Something else that seemed different between the two of us was our fighting style. While this was to be expected, it just stuck out in my mind somehow how much more physical Mei-chan's style was compared to my own, despite that each of us were just as strong, fast, and had just as much chi as the other. Where Mei's style was better suited to causing a lot of damage to one opponent way up close, mine was much more varied in how much damage I could give and to how many opponents and from how far. Where Mei used her chi almost solely to enhance her attributes with a special chi attack strewn in, mine was more centered around having a different chi technique for just about every use imaginable short of the good old melee.

I was proud of my skill! I was proud of my power! I was proud of what I'd done and how far I could continue to go. But even I had my sore spots.

The biggest of my sore spots was my bust size. I hadn't grown much up to that point, leaving me rather small yet… Really small, actually. And the previous day had done nothing if not reaffirm that feeling of inadequacy. I'd been compared over and over (at least twice so far, that I knew of…) to Ranma-chan, and each time had been told, in no uncertain terms, that my breasts were too small.

Oh yes, that little gnome-monkey man was going to pay. I didn't care if he _was_ super strong or super fast, he was going to pay! I wasn't sure quite how yet, but I would eventually think of a way… for now it was time to get ready to head off to school.

* * *

"Hey Mei-chan. Did you get anywhere yet?"

Mei shook her head no, "I've got some of your blocks in my bag. Do you think you can give me some kind of advice today?"

I nodded, "Alright, I'll see what I can come up with…" I trailed off as I noticed a girl with a pageboy haircut approaching my desk.

"Mari Takamura?" I nodded, "My name's Nabiki, someone told me you wanted to talk to me?"

I nodded again, "Yes. I was wondering if you might be able to help me with something?"

Nabiki shrugged, "I might, it depends on what you're willing to pay?"

I nervously clasped my hands together in thought just in front of my mouth, resisting the urge to bite the nail off of my thumb, "I was wondering… if we could make some kind of deal?"

Nabiki raised an eyebrow, "I'm listening."

"I… hmm. Okay, first things first. That guy from yesterday, Mario? I was wondering if you might be able to help me 'deal' with him, to get him to leave me alone without actually hurting the guy."

Nabiki nodded, "I would have to know more about him. And what would you do in exchange?"

I sighed, looking to Mei for help, but she just seemed really nervous, holding one hand in front of her mouth in a universal sign of timidness. "I don't, I… maybe I could help you with something? Maybe like-" I was silenced when Nabiki put up a hand to stop me.

She then looked me straight in the eye, with a cold, emotionless expression that had come to be famous as the 'Ice Queen' mask. "Tell me this now, just how many more crazies follow you around? And do they follow your friend around too? It would go a long way if you told me a few things about yourself and those around you…" she smiled a smile I wasn't sure I liked, "Like just how good you are at Martial Arts?" She then turned and started walking away, waving her hand as she left, "Think about it."

With Nabiki, gone a bit of the tension in my shoulders leaked away. Why was I so intimidated by her?

Probably because I knew the truth behind the phrase 'Information can be dangerous'.

* * *

I had given some thought to what Nabiki had said, trying to think of how else my life might disrupt life at Furinkan. So far, only Mario really came to mind. Well, there was one other, but that was more of a personal grudge than something that would disrupt life around here.

Then there were my Martial Arts. I couldn't even imagine just what she might want with that, why did she care how good I was at Martial Arts?

And, of course, there was Mei-chan as well. I wasn't afraid to say that, even with how much talking we'd done, there was still a lot I didn't really know about her. She'd been home-schooled, but did she have any friends other than me? She was rather good at Martial Arts, so who was it that had taught her? She knew my sensei, so who was her sensei? Did she have any rivals?

By the time lunch came around, I didn't have very many answers, but still lots of questions.

So while I waited for Nabiki to approach me again (I figured it was her business, not mine), I was trying to tutor Mei-chan on proper use of the 'learning blocks'. Unfortunately, due to my having spent all my time thinking about what Nabiki had said, I didn't really seem to have any truly helpful advice for her quite yet.

"Well?"

I looked up from my blocks to see Nabiki looking down at me. "I, well, haven't really thought of anything of note."

"Then, how good are you?"

I sighed, thinking about the question, "Eh, good enough."

"Could you be a bit more specific? What dan level?"

I shrugged, somehow calm now where I hadn't been before. Perhaps that was because before Nabiki, a well-known girl all across the school, had come to the wrong classroom all on my account, and now she was just perusing the school grounds during lunch? "My style has no name, and no rankings. But if it helps I was first dan or black belt in sixty other styles by the time I was twelve." 'Or was it eight?'

"Really? So just how good _are_ you?" Nabiki didn't seem to want to take my word for it.

I thought on the subject for a bit, then looked at her, "Well, you could watch Mei-chan and I spar this afternoon… unless you're busy?" I turned to Mei-chan, who was apparently still trying to get one block to stick to another.

She looked up at me and shook her head, turning back to the blocks, "I have things I need to catch up on."

I was about to ask, but didn't, "Well, you could just come see Sensei and I practice, that should do you."

"Sensei? What's _his_ name?"

I thought for a short moment, trying to recall the name I'd never expected to use and had only known for a day or so, "Radi Kumon."

Nabiki seemed surprised for just a moment, "Kumon? From the Kumon dojo?"

I blinked, "Kumon dojo? There's a Kumon dojo?"

Nabiki shrugged, "Used to be. Either way, it might be an interesting show if nothing else, and I have nothing else planned today. You've got yourself a deal. Meet me at the gate after school."

Just as Nabiki was about to walk away, I stopped her, "Wait! What are you getting out of this?"

Nabiki shrugged, "Some entertainment. Life hasn't been very entertaining as of late; kind of dreary even." 'Since Ranma left.' I finished the statement for her.

Nabiki was about to leave earshot when I stopped her again. "What is it?"

I smiled nervously, "I, uh, have tryouts after school today, for the Rhythmic Gymnastics team."

Nabiki seemed to think on the subject for a moment, then shrugged, "Alright, I'll see you there then." She waved me off and soon found herself confronted by another girl, who quickly left, presumably on yet another errand.

"You're trying out for the team?" Mei-chan didn't even take her eyes off of the blocks on which she was concentrating so hard, "But with all you showed me, doesn't that give you an unfair advantage?"

I sighed honestly and thought for a moment, "There are a lot of things that give me an unfair advantage…" After another moment of thought, I spoke again, "But I guess I could… just not use them. It's not like I couldn't not use them."

Mei frowned for a moment, "That was a double-negative, but it somehow makes sense."

I chuckled once, "Yeah, you never expected that, did you?"

Mei shrugged with a smug expression on her face, "Somehow, when you're around, the unexpected doesn't seem unexpected anymore."

I adopted a wry smirk and mock-punched her in the arm, "Same goes for you, Mei-chan, I hope you know that?"

Mei seemed thoughtful for a moment, then she turned a guise-less smirk my way, "You have no idea."

I blinked. What was that supposed to mean? And then I shrugged and went back to my lunch, which I had failed to touch as of yet.

We passed a few minutes in silence, in which both of our lunches seemed to have simply… disappeared, and then I spoke suddenly, "Just so you know… it's not so much how much or how gently you give it your chi… but how you do it. What it feels like, what you're thinking is more important than what you're doing." I gave her a smile in response to her puzzled expression, "I guess that's all the advice I can give, the rest you've got to figure out on your own."

She gave me a blank expression for a moment, then turned back to the blocks, "'You can't describe a flower to a blind man.'"

I nodded, "Yeah, something like that."

We spent until the bell just sitting there, myself thinking and Mei-chan trying to figure her way through this new advice.

* * *

That afternoon I went to where the tryouts for the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics team were being held. Once there I was told to change into gym clothes and then instructed to wait my turn.

Apparently, the team was both desperate for new members, but at the same time had a size requirement, which meant that the team would give higher considerations for returning members, but it was quite possible to have an older member pushed out by a promising new member.

The way I figured it, it was possible I wouldn't make the team if the current members were talented enough, since I wasn't going to be using my chi in any way. In the crowd of random spectators (a random number of which were male, probably either here for their girlfriends or to watch in the event of certain… accidents) I noticed a few familiar faces, no one special though; and then there was Nabiki, who was looking over the girls with very little interest.

Of the girls there for tryouts I could see a promising gathering of both real skill and experience, and of potential just waiting to come out.

Once my turn came up, I took to my place across from a girl from my class, who's name I couldn't recall. "Ever done this before?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I was on my Junior High team. We won a couple tournaments, but I don't think we ever got to Citywide or Nationals. You?"

I shrugged. "I've never actually done this before, but I'm a pretty good Martial Artist, so it shouldn't be too hard to adapt." My inexperience showed through the fact that I didn't have any tights and had shown up in my gym clothes.

She smiled, "Well then, this should be a good match. Shake?"

We shook, and then took our positions. The judge-person, a somewhat tired looking individual, came over and announced a start to our match.

My opponent took immediate offensive. Waiting until the last second, I dodged to the side, flung a club at the girl, and took a ribbon in my other hand.

The club struck her in the near shoulder blade and she fell to her knees clutching the spot, "Iee! Ow! That really hurts! I give, I give!"

I watched, dumbfounded with my ribbon twirling off to the side, as the girl got the judge-person to try to massage some life into the apparently useless arm, which had locked up from the pain.

I hadn't _meant_ to hit her so hard, but apparently the club I had flung had hit a very specific nerve with just enough force to dis-locate it completely, temporarily locking up that entire arm until it could be put back into place.

With a bow, I apologized for my mistake, "Eh, sorry about that, I guess I don't know my own strength… or something."

She waved it off, "No, I should have known what I was getting into; and besides, I overextended myself, I should have known better." She smirked at me, "It won't happen again."

I could only laugh nervously. The rest of my bouts I held back even more, using just enough skill and strength to defeat my opponents without injuring them.

When I defeated the former club captain I was given the nick-name 'The Crimson Serpent', in ode to both my red hair and my seeming affinity to striking from a distance with the ribbon, which ended up being my tool of choice. I was pleased to see that the girl I'd defeated in my first bout had happened to make the cut to the final team, which told me that she at least recovered quickly enough…

* * *

Nabiki caught me before leaving the tryouts and insisted that she walk with me to the gravel pit, where I was to meet my sensei.

"So, what does it feel like, Saotome?"

I blinked, "What did you just call me?"

She looked at me without giving any facial cues as to say she heard my question, "I asked you what it feels like to be captain of the team?"

I frowned, but decided to 'go' with the change of subject, "It feels okay. I guess it's nice to know I'm that good, but it's also a bit disappointing that no one could go toe-to-toe with me, either."

Nabiki shrugged, "I'm sure Kodachi'll give you a run, but you'll have to be ready for ambushes and deal with her calling you 'Red-haired bitch'."

I looked straight ahead, mouthing the name, "Kodachi… Kodachi…"

"You know, Kodachi Kuno?"

I continued to stare forward, but whispered a familiar phrase, "The Black Rose of Sarayashiki Junior High."

Nabiki smirked, then seemed to lose place for a moment, "Don't you mean St. Bacchus' school for girls?"

I blinked at her, "Is that where they stuck her?" Waving it off, I decided it wasn't important. I then went back to another subject, "What'd you just call me, just a minute ago?"

She seemed to think about a response for a moment, but waved it off. "It's not important, you reminded me of someone, that's all."

I watched her wryly for a few moments before just continuing on to the gravel pit.

When I stopped her at a good distance from the center of the gravel pit, she looked me in the eye and said five words, "Don't hold back this time."

I nodded, then went to my sensei, where we took our positions.

We then went into a standard sparring session, which, since it was held in a gravel pit, was a fairly flashy bit that destroyed quite a lot of the landscape, smashing out craters and carving up long ditches, reducing crags to slag and creating new ones. You know, the basics of relandscaping.

When we were done two hours later, I walked over to Nabiki, who had apparently had a close call with a stray blast of some sort and had her hair slightly out of sorts.

"Well, what'd-" **huff** "-you think?" I winced as I put the wrong kind of pressure on one of my ankles, both of which had a sprain or injury of some kind, but would heal up just fine once popped back into place, which I decided to do then and there.

Nabiki looked at me with a calculating expression, which turned green slightly when my ankles gave out a loud _POP_. After a few seconds, she spoke, gesturing in a random direction, "Would you like to come to the dojo?"

I blinked, "Why? Do you think there's something there I could learn?"

She seemed to catch on this question, but shrugged anyway, "Just to talk for a while. I would like to consider a few things, and I'm sure Kasumi, my sister, would love to have company."

I gestured my favorite travel pack back over my shoulders, "Are you sure it doesn't have anything to do with this person I remind you of?"

She gave me a non-look, "It might."

I gave her a sidelong glance, then sighed, "Sure, why not? It's not like I've got anything better to do tonight."

She nodded with a wry smirk, "Right."

And so, she led me to the Tendo dojo, her home, where a strange meeting was waiting for me.

* * *

"Tadaima! And I brought a guest." I followed suit as Nabiki removed her shoes, then followed her through the inner door to the house.

"Oh my. Nabiki, you have a… Ranma-chan?" I momentarily felt like growling as the taller girl's eyes met with mine, but somehow couldn't even find it in myself to frown at the girl. She wore a house maker's dress, wore her long brown hair in a ponytail and had large, innocent, sweet, and powerfully caring almond-brown eyes. Her expression was one of surprise as she looked at me, practically radiating feminine energy even as she clutched desperately to the handle of a small rag mop.

After a few moments of staring me over, she quickly bowed, "I'm sorry, I mistook you for someone else. She left us recently and I suppose we're all a bit jumpy." She looked to me with near-tears in her eyes, "The worst part is not knowing, do you understand?"

I was momentarily confused, but soon nodded assent, "Yes, I understand. My parents actually live in Azabu-Juuban, and they were once attacked by a daemon. I didn't find out about it until almost a week later, but ever since I couldn't help but worry for them. I've asked them many times to move to Nerima, but I think I may have been keeping them afraid of this place with all my stories." I nervously rubbed my cheek, trying to rid or at least hide my minor blush.

"Oh my. Well, this really is a pleasant place to live, if a bit interesting from time to time. Please, come in. Would you like to stay for dinner?"

I didn't even get the chance to momentarily want to say no; almost immediately the girl's peaceful, feminine aura worked its way into my mind and just made me trust her completely. Well, perhaps not completely, but enough to think her trustworthy and sincere.

I quickly nodded, "I would be honored, Tendo-san."

The girl smiled warmly for a moment, then turned back to go to the kitchen.

_"YEEEEEAAAAAGGGHHHH!"_ **CCRRRAAASSSHH!**

I perked a bit when I heard a loud battle cry carry through the house. "What was that?"

Nabiki, who had been watching the exchange between the taller girl and myself, waved the question off, "That's just little sister 'practicing'. I'll be back down in a bit."

I think I may have seen a wry smirk as she stalked up the stairs to the second floor, leaving me alone on the first floor.

After about a minute a stocky bald man in a dirty gi soon confronted me. "Boy, is that you?"

I was then suddenly accosted by a tall crying man in a mustache, "Son! It's so good to have you back! We must tell Akane right away!" (Microsoft Word says: 'A tall crying man in a mustache, "Son, then suddenly accosted me!' Lol!)

"Gah!"

_"YEEEEEAAAAAGGGHHHH!"_ **CCRRRAAASSSHH!**

"Yes, let me call the priest! I think he's on speed-dial?"

"E-excuse me, Tendo-san?"

"Yes! Out to the dojo!"

"Tendo-san?" My arms were still pinned to my chest, but I could push off at any time. At least I had room to breathe, though. I'd heard horror stories of people being unable to breathe because someone refused to let go.

"Of course! You should become a boy first!"

"What?"

"Kasumi! Where is the kettle?"

"On the stove, father. Here, I'll get it for you, I wouldn't want you slipping on the wet floor."

"Could you let me go, please?"

"Thank you, Kasumi-chan! Here you go, boy! Quickly, where is the tuxedo?"

I backpedaled momentarily as I was suddenly let go and had a kettle handed to me. "What?"

"The priest says he can come right away!" Due to the noise I was hearing over the phone, I deducted that this was not actually the case.

"Wonderful! How quickly can he be here?"

"As quickly as I can carry him! I'll return soon!" The stocky bald man then leapt out the door heading in some random direction.

_"YEEEEEAAAAAGGGHHHH!"_ **CCRRRAAASSSHH!**

"Um, father dearest?"

"Yes Kasumi?" The tall crying man turned a tearfully happy face toward the tall girl.

"That's not Ranma."

All motion in the house stopped for a moment, even as Nabiki snickered lightly from the stairs.

The tall crying man looked at me, then back at Kasumi-san, then back to me. He then took the kettle and poured its contents over my shoulder, crying as he did so.

When he fainted with his eyes wide open, I quickly "Eep!"ed and covered myself, muttering choice phrases about wet t-shirts.

_"YEEEEEAAAAAGGGHHHH!"_ **CCRRRAAASSSHH!**

I turned a not-at-all amused look toward Nabiki, who was quickly taking picture after picture. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

She shrugged, "Can't blame a girl for having a little fun, can you?"

"Please let me apologize for them, father and Mr. Saotome can get a bit excited from time to time."

"That's alright I suppose, Tendo-san. I'm more worried about the one breaking things out back…"

"Oh my. Yes, I suppose she might be a bit... oh my, I'm not really even sure."

A knocking came from the front door and Kasumi-san went to answer it. "Hello, may I help you?"

A familiar voice wafted through the mudroom to my place in the main room, "Yes, is my friend, Mari Takamura here?"

"Oh my, let me check." Kasumi-san turned to me, "Would your name be Mari Takamura?" I nodded, "Well, then there's someone at the door for you." Turning back to the door, she invited whomever it was inside the house, "Would you like to come inside?"

"No, thank you. I was just wondering if Mari-chan was going to come to our study session tonight?" Mei-chan gave me a wry, annoyed look that said 'Don't say no.'

"Ah, I suppose, if you don't mind Tendo-san?"

"Oh, no. Besides, it might do-"

_"YEEEEEAAAAAGGGHHHH!"_ **CCRRRAAASSSHH!**

"-to keep you away from Akane for the time being."

I nodded, "Agreed." I then turned to Mei-chan, "Didn't you say you had things to do this afternoon?"

Mei nodded, "Yes, and this is one of them." She then turned to Kasumi, "Tendo-san, I was asked to deliver a message to this house. I was supposed to tell you that two people you know wish to see all of you. You can meet them in Ootsuka Park by the samurai statue, this Sunday at noon."

Kasumi blinked, "Two people?"

Mei-chan nodded with a slight bow, "Yes. I'm afraid that's all I can say."

"Well, alright then. I'll let everyone know…"

"Thank you, Tendo-san. Coming Mari-chan?"

"Coming." Once out the door, I bowed a quick farewell to Kasumi and left with Mei-chan, glad to be away from that madhouse.

Shortly after, I spied a large panda stopping at the house with a man in black robes in its arms. I can only guess what happened from there on.

* * *

Once Mei-chan had finished leading me to her house, we stopped outside the door. It was I who spoke first, "You realize we don't have any homework tonight, right?"

Mei nodded, "Yeah, but with the yelling I was hearing coming from there, I thought you might need some help."

I nodded wryly, habitually rubbing my lower left arm with my right hand, "Yeah, I guess so. I should thank you…" I thought for a while, and then smiled, "I think I've got something. But you'll need to sacrifice some of your blood?"

Even from where I was standing, I could see the alarm bells going off in Mei's head, "Eh, why do you need my blood?"

I shrugged, "That's a secret… for now." I waved at the air, "A pint should be more than enough, if you can get it."

Mei had one eyebrow up in the air, but nodded curiously anyway, "Ah, sure. See you tomorrow?"

"Sure, I'll see you there." With a nod, I bounced silently away.

* * *

End Chapter 1

* * *

Well, that's it for this one.

Alex Ultra: There's Enough Angst Around Here Already

LATER


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